


Erlkönig's Labyrinth

by Square_Pancake



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, F/M, Labyrinth fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 15:18:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2512382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Square_Pancake/pseuds/Square_Pancake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When his sister Raven wishes herself away, Charles Xavier challenges Erik the Erlkönig and his Labyrinth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Erlkönig's Labyrinth

 

“I understand you summoned me here to challenge my Labyrinth for your sister’s return, but I’m afraid it’s entirely impossible,” the Goblin King rebukes the young man in front of him. Metal spheres flow over and through his fingers in an endless current, drawing the eye and subtly clouding the mind.

“I’m not frightened by the challenge, difficult though it may be,” Charles stubbornly insists. He knows the myths of Erik the Erlkönig, the child snatcher who took wished away children and mocked the wishers with their own failings. Still, the stories speak of those challengers who ran the Labyrinth and won, so it wasn’t impossible. Charles knows that with his abilities, assuming they work within the Labyrinth, he has a better chance than most. He has not tried to read the Goblin King, unwilling to tip his hand before the race even started.

“No, you don’t understand,” Erik retorts, a sneer twisting his handsome features. “Raven wished herself away, so you cannot run it for her freedom.”

In dealing with his father’s vast estate after his mother died, Charles had ample exposure to property contracts and guardianship provisions. He is prepared to deal in the minutiae that so intrigue the fae. “Under the terms of my mother’s will, I am Raven’s guardian until she turns 18. As she is only 17, and doesn’t have my permission to visit the goblin kingdom, she had no ability to wish herself away. I’m afraid I absolutely have the right to challenge your claim.”

Immediately Erik changes tactics. “She’s happy among my subjects, she can live and be herself without the pettiness of mortals,” one of the gleaming spheres rises from Erik’s hand into the air and flattens into a mirror. Light ripples across the surface and Charles can see Raven, gleefully laughing in her natural blue form while dancing with a red, tailed man. “Why would you even want to take her away from where she can be happy?”

“Without being able to see her myself I won’t just accept your assertion that she is happy,” Charles knows perfectly well how pictures can lie, and one laughing image of his sister dancing is hardly enough to convince him. “And I…I want to be able to see my sister in more than just dreams.” Charles knows this part is his own selfish desire to avoid the loneliness he sees in a future without Raven. If he never sees Raven again, he’s not certain how he’ll stay sane.

“Why not wish yourself away?” Erik’s voice is deliberately beguiling. He gestures with a hand, and the mirror shows a new reflection; a large room, covered from floor to ceiling with bookshelves like the grand old European libraries Charles has always loved. A tilt of Erik’s wrist makes the image shimmer into a closer view, with Charles sprawled out on the floor in front of a large bookcase, book in hand, Raven leaning against the bookcase and obviously scolding him fondly. Even from the outside, Charles recognizes their sibling relationship captured in the reflection.

“There are so many delights in my kingdom,” Erik continues silkily. This time the image is hazier, just white cloth and the impression of movement. In spite of his own better judgment, Charles leans in closer to see. He immediately blushes as he recognizes limbs entwined on a bed, even as he jerks backwards, two pairs of eyes become visible, his own distinctive blue irises, slightly glazed in pleasure or pain, and another mismatched set of green and grey.

“Pleasures not only of the mind, but also the body.” Charles very determinedly refuses to meet Erik’s eyes as he attempts to control his blush. When he realizes that his gaze instead landed on Erik’s obscenely tight trousers, Charles forces himself to turn away from Erik entirely, focusing his gaze out the window, much to the Goblin King’s amusement. His rich chuckle is echoed around the room from small shapes scurrying in the shadows.

Firming his jaw, Charles maintains, “I have no more desire to be your subject than I do to abandon the other mutants I can help in my world.” Part of his heart pangs at the admission, but he knows that even for his sister, he cannot abandon his dream of helping the others out there, who may not even know what they are.

Humming in thought, Erik eventually offers, “a wager then. I will be generous- run my Labyrinth. If you make it to my castle beyond the goblin city, you can have free passage to visit my kingdom whenever you desire.” Charles can practically hear the smirk in Erik’s voice, the subtle stress on visiting Erik’s kingdom rather than Charles’s sister, the lingering emphasis on the word desire.

 Charles asks, “and Raven can see me on the surface?” reluctantly meeting Erik’s mismatched eyes. Absently, Charles notices with relief that the mirror was gone, presumably warped back into one of the spheres orbiting the Erlkönig’s gloved hand.

“Only during the dark of the moon,” Erik’s voice makes clear that this is not subject to negotiation. If Charles wants to see his sister in the mortal world again, it will be under the limits Erik allows.

Still, Charles is not a fool. There must be a potential cost to the runner for this to be a wager. Normally that cost would be the loss of a child, but Raven has already wished herself away. Even if Charles is able to secure her freedom, in less than a year Raven would be 18 and probably invite Erik to take her away to the Underground again. And Erik would undoubtedly take her, if only to annoy Charles, though she would no longer be a child. No, losing Raven is not the risk of this attempt and Charles knows better than to assume. “And if I fail?”

A lingering pause as Erik runs his predatory gaze over Charles’s body, “obviously you too would join me as a subject of the Goblin Kingdom.”

Really, it’s not a bad offer Charles’s libido murmurs even as he firms his resolve to beat the Labyrinth.

“I agree.”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my [tumblr](http://square-pancake.tumblr.com/post/100787636671/erlkonigs-labyrinth-ch-1)


End file.
